Imagine a group of teenagers at the mall a couple of years from now. One of them sees something for sale, snaps a picture with his camera cellphone and e-mails it to a few friends.

Then, moments later, he hits a button on his phone and begins a group “push-to-talk” session with those friends to discuss the prospective purchase.

It’s this kind of instant messaging for voice that wireless guru Andrew Seybold sees as the Next Big Thing in the cellular-communications world.

“It will transform the voice cellphone area,” said Seybold, a California-based analyst and industry newsletter publisher.

“By mid-2005, everybody is going to have push-to-talk. There are lots of things coming, such as buddy lists, so you can see who’s on. The after-school crowd, instead of going home to sit at the computer to do Instant Messaging, will be using push-to-talk.”

The push-to-talk technology — which provides users with a walkie-talkie-like connection from anywhere within a network — has been available in Canada from Telus Mobility’s Mike brand for several years.

But it is not cheap — cost includes a monthly fee and a per-minute charge for push-to-talk connections. Typical customers are in sales, construction and the oil-and-gas industries.

But Seybold predicted that pricing will come down as markets widen.

Bell Mobility has already announced it will be launching a push-to-talk service sometime this year. It is already offered by four U.S. networks and in Europe.

“We are going to have cross-network push-to-talk, which is going to be pretty cool,” said Seybold.

Seybold’s other predictions:

– As new wireless spectrum goes up for auction in the U.S., we will see, for the first time, companies such as AOL, Microsoft and Intel as bidders.

– There will be a big shift in wireless device vendors, away from the traditional makers such as Nokia, with new players from Disney, MTV and even Yahoo!.

© The Vancouver Province 2004